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Mondelēz International says Mallomars, the 113-year-old seasonal cookie, remains a steady seller generating roughly $11 million in annual sales with minimal marketing, sustained by its limited fall-to-spring availability and Northeast loyalty. Sales are growing in the South, including a 37% dollar-sales jump at Publix. The company has declined to make it a year-round product.
Mondelēz International is keeping Mallomars, the 113-year-old cookie that appears on store shelves each fall and vanishes by spring, on its limited seasonal schedule — a strategy the company says has turned a product with roughly $11 million in annual sales and little marketing into what one executive calls a “cultural icon.” According to a Food Dive report, the brand is now also gaining traction beyond its Northeastern base, with dollar sales up 37% at Southeastern grocery chain Publix over the last 52 weeks.
Mallomars, made by the company behind Oreo, consist of round graham crackers topped with marshmallow and covered in dark chocolate. The cookie arrives in September and disappears in the spring, a schedule originally tied to warm weather: the tempered chocolate coating can melt in summer heat. Mondelēz told Food Dive that refrigerated trucks, which did not exist when the cookie launched more than a century ago, would now allow year-round distribution — but the company has chosen not to make the cookie permanent, citing tradition, the value of scarcity, and the brand’s small scale in a select region of the U.S.
The economics are modest compared with Mondelēz’s cookie giants. Oreo generates nearly $2.1 billion in annual U.S. sales, and Chips Ahoy is close to $1 billion, according to figures cited in the report. Mallomars, by contrast, sell roughly the same volume year over year with minimal promotional support.
Demand is concentrated regionally: more than three-quarters of Mallomars shoppers live in the northeastern U.S., according to the company. But the brand has grown in the South in recent years, driven in part by snowbirds in Florida and neighboring states who stock up on the cookie. Food Dive reported that when Mallomars first appear each September, some customers load up and freeze them, at least one retailer clears shelf space for them, and other chains place pallets of cookie boxes on the sales floor. Mondelēz also uses the Mallomars production lines to make other cookies, including chocolate-covered Oreo, when the seasonal run ends.
Why Scarcity Powers a Small Brand
The Mallomars approach shows how a large food company can profit from a deliberately limited product rather than pushing for year-round scale. The cookie’s predictability — the same volume, the same window, the same region — makes it a low-effort, dependable performer at a time when, according to Mondelēz brand lead Caroline Suppiger, the broader cookie category “might not be growing as much or as stable.”
The model also illustrates the commercial value of nostalgia and ritual. Shoppers who grew up eating the cookie associate it with family traditions, and the annual return creates urgency that year-round availability could erase. Growth at Publix, a chain of more than 1,400 Southeastern stores, suggests the appeal may be expanding beyond its traditional base without any change in how the product is sold.
For Mondelēz, keeping Mallomars seasonal also has an operational benefit: the production lines are not idle in the off-season but are used for other cookies, including a chocolate-covered Oreo variant.
Mallomars have been sold for 113 years, launching in an era before refrigerated trucking made temperature-controlled distribution routine. The fall-to-spring schedule was a practical response to the cookie’s heat-sensitive chocolate coating, and it has survived long past the technical constraint that created it.
The cookie has long been a Northeastern staple, with the region accounting for the large majority of purchases. In recent years, the brand has found new customers in the South, where transplants and retirees familiar with the cookie have driven demand — the pattern behind the reported 37% dollar-sales increase at Publix during the latest 52-week period.
Suppiger, who oversees the brand, noted she did not try a Mallomar until joining Mondelēz in 2020, having grown up in Idaho — outside the cookie’s core market — a detail the company itself uses to underscore how regionally rooted the product remains.
“It’s such a well-oiled machine. We know when to run it. We know where to sell it. We know who wants to buy it. So it doesn’t need a ton of brain power. It sells pretty much the same volume year over year.”
— Caroline Suppiger, Mondelēz brand lead for Mallomars
Questions Behind the Sales Numbers
The 37% Publix sales increase comes from Mondelēz itself rather than an independent measurement firm such as Circana, and the report does not provide the underlying dollar figure for that growth. The roughly $11 million annual sales figure and the share of Northeastern shoppers are also company-supplied. It is not clear how much of the Southern growth is durable versus driven by a specific customer group, and Mondelēz has not publicly detailed whether it has considered — and rejected — a broader national rollout beyond its statements about tradition and scarcity.
Whether the Seasonal Formula Holds
Mondelēz has given no indication it plans to change the model: Mallomars will continue to appear in September and leave shelves in spring, with production lines shifting to other cookies in the off-season. Watchers of the brand will be looking at whether Southern sales growth continues in coming seasons and whether Mondelēz invests any new marketing behind a product that has historically needed almost none. Any move toward year-round or national distribution would be a departure from the strategy the company has described — and one it has so far ruled out.
Key Questions
Why are Mallomars only sold part of the year?
The cookie’s dark chocolate coating can melt in summer heat, which is why it historically appeared in September and left shelves in spring. Mondelēz says refrigerated trucks would now allow year-round sales, but it keeps the seasonal schedule for tradition, scarcity and the brand’s small regional footprint.
How much do Mallomars sell each year?
According to figures cited by Food Dive, Mallomars generate roughly $11 million in annual sales — far below Oreo’s nearly $2.1 billion in U.S. sales or Chips Ahoy’s near-$1 billion.
Where are Mallomars most popular?
Mondelēz says more than three-quarters of Mallomars shoppers live in the northeastern U.S. The brand has also grown in the South, with dollar sales up 37% at Publix over the last 52 weeks, according to the company.
Can you freeze Mallomars?
Yes — Food Dive reported that many customers stockpile the cookies in their freezers when they arrive each fall, extending their availability past the spring end of the season.
Will Mondelēz ever sell Mallomars year-round?
The company says it has refrained from making the cookie permanent, citing tradition, the appeal of a limited run, and the brand’s small size. It also uses the production lines for other cookies, including chocolate-covered Oreo, during the off-season.
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